Shootout: 1993 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 vs 1993 Ford Mustang Cobra

byC.Van Tune/ March 25, 2010
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Editor's Note: As the anticipation builds for the first drive of the 2011 Ford Mustang GT on March 29, we've decided to go into the archives this week to highlight the history of the Mustang 5.0 from past issues of Motor Trend. Enjoy!

Which is best, Mustang or Camaro? The original blue oval or the raucous red bowtie? For 25 years, this controversy has sparked fury in the soul of mankind. It's often brutal. Push comes to shove every Saturday night on Main Streets across the nation, as the two factions line up in clandestine showdowns. A traffic light serves as the Christmas tree. Green. Go. Tire smoke. Power shifts. Nervous glances over the shoulder. Redline in the first three gears. Victory by a nose. The contest has been close for a very long time.

The game will become more serious when the '93 Camara hits the streets. With its Corvette LTI engine, six-speed transmission, and anti-lock brakes, the new 228 will be one formidable adversary. This is the first major revision to the GM F-body platform since Reagan's inaugural term, long enough for your first-grader to have graduated from high school, and equal to about two epochs in typical product cycle time keeping.

Ford enthusiasts have waited even longer for their new car. The "Fox platform" Mustang has been around since '79, essentially half of all the years the nameplate has been in existence. This makes the '93 version one of the oldest still-in-production platforms in the country and rightfully should qualify it for some sort of government aid.

The engineers aren't taking this lying down. Their new-and-improved Mustang (code-named SN-95) is nearly ready. The one drawback is that it won't appear until sometime in 1994. A glimmer of hope for Ford fanciers is this year's vitamin-fortified Mustang Cobra. By raiding Ford's voluminous storehouse of parts, tossing away some old-car chaff, and shoveling in more horsepower, the familiar, old steed has been given a new lease on life.

This is the showdown. This first test of Chevy's newest and Ford's meanest. A fight to determine which will reign supreme in the real-world contest of acceleration, braking, handling, and top speed. So clear the road and mount the fifth wheels. Only one car will return the victor.

Everyone knows about the Mustang 5.0-liter. With its big power, short wheelbase, rear drive, and tall bodywork, a Mustang requires a steady hand on its reins and judicious use of the loud pedal. It's a car that elicits wide-eyed thrills on dry surfaces, but tends toward the scary when things get wet. Obviously, there's room for improvement.

Ford's newly formed Special Vehicle Team attacked the Mustang project like Bob Vila after a Levittown duplex. The recipe for the Mustang Cobra should make recyclers proud, as most of what's been added is stuff that's available (or has been used in years past) on other Ford products. Essentially, only the new 17x7.5-inch directional alloys, 245/45ZR17 Goodyears, and slightly modified fascias and reardeck wing constitute any fresh expenditure.

You'll have to look closely to spot a Mustang Cobra, though there are a new upper grille (with pony emblem), vintage coiled snakes on the front fenders, and '84-era SVO Mustang taillights to help you out. Inside, it's standard Mustang GT fare, with rather unsupportive buckets, decent analog instruments, and a driver-side airbag. Cruise control isn't offered on the otherwise highly contented Cobra, and a tilt wheel is something no new Mustang delivers. Leather upholstery, a sunroof, and an uplevel sound system are the lone options, while paint choices are limited to red, black, or teal. The Cobra is available only in hatchback bodystyle, and production will be held to 5000 units.

By contrast, the much-higher-production Z28's swoopy new bodywork twists necks like Paulina Porizkova at a South Philly teamsters convention. The body panels (except the hood and rear fenders) are composite plastic, the windshield is laid back at 68 degrees, and the blackout roof panel adds a particularly stealthy look. True, the design isn't as radical as what appeared in '82, but it's a tasteful evolution of that familiar shape. If this one stays in production as long as the previous Camaro did, you've just had your first look at the 2003 Z28.

The cockpit of the new Camaro will be familiar to anyone who's ever been inside the old car. You still get decent room up front, terrible space in back, and a small storage well in which to stack grocery bags or really obnoxious children. Notable improvements include rotary ventilation knobs, revised analog gauges, standard dual airbags, and a mega-amp sound system that'll soon introduce you to the world of closed-caption television viewing.

But to hell with the aesthetics. When you're mano-a-mano with that sleazy jerk in the other lane, performance is all that counts. And when you're packin'a 5.7-liter LT1 under the hood, there ain't many that'll get around you. Chevrolet claims the more restrictive intake and exhaust systems of the Camaro's LT1 (for clearance in the tight engine bay) reduce output to 275 horsepower at 5000 rpm (versus the Corvette's 300 horsepower) and 325 pound-feet of torque at 2400 rpm (compared to 340 pound-feet at 3600 rpm). You'll never notice the loss, trust us. Power delivery is swift and strong and accompanied by the rowdiest-sounding exhaust note in the business. The Borg-Warner T-56 sixspeed shifts lightly and precisely and manages to avoid using the annoying first-to-fourth-gear "skipshift" system that plagues the Vette and Viper transmissions.

Entering the arena with a smaller 5.0-liter V-8, the Mustang Cobra has a lot of ground to make up. In the cruel world of single-cam, naturally aspirated powerplants, displacement is everything. Torque, not horsepower, is what generally wins races. Interestingly, Ford's engineers chose the approach of improving the motor's high-rpm breathing. Their prescription included adding freer-flowing SVO GT40 cylinder heads with larger valves, an SVO intake manifold and throttle body, a revised camshaft and rocker arms, and a recalibrated engine computer. The goal was to boost output by 40-plus horsepower in the 5200-5600 rev range, to somewhere approaching 265 horsepower (using the previous rating system, but closer to 235 horsepower based on Ford's more real-world-accurate new system). We have no doubt they achieved their objective, but feel they did so at the loss of significant lower-rpm driveability.

One of the best things about a standard Mustang 5.0 is its low-rpm squirt. This is where the Mustang Cobra frustrates. Sure, it's got the beans to rip your head off when you've strained the tach needle deep into the vast yellow zone (4700 to 5800 rpm), but drop below about 2500 rpm, and there's little forward thrust. With the one-choice-only 3.08:1 rear gearing, the Cobra cruises at 1750 rpm in fifth gear at 60 mph. Tag the throttle at this speed, and you'll think the fuel flow has been crimped off. It'll require a downshift to fourth, or perhaps third gear, to get past anyone on a two-lane road.

Low and midrange torque is so abundant in the Z28 you could rent yours to construction crews for moving piles of dirt. With the well-spaced ratios of the six-speed's cogs, and the available 3.23:1 ring-and-pinion, the gearing advantage over the Cobra's setup alone would make this car quicker. With the added grunt of the LT1, it's no contest. Even saddled with a 118-pound weight disadvantage, the Z28 is the clear victor in speed contests. Staged together at the drag strip's starting line, the cars only stay together for the first two car lengths. By 20 mph, the Camaro's taken the lead, stretching it to a strong advantage (5.6 versus 6.2 seconds) at 60 mph. Tripping the quarter-mile timers at 14.0 seconds/at 98.8 mph gives the Z28 uncontested bragging rights over the Cobra's best effort of 14.4 seconds/at 97.4 mph. (Our recent test of a '92 Mustang LX 5.0 showed 0-60 times of 6.2 seconds and a quarter-mile best of 14.8 seconds/at 95.8 mph.)

The top-speed shootout was next. On our secret high-speed test road, the temperaments of the two cars proved markedly different. The Cobra accelerated strongly to the top of fourth gear (nearly 130 mph), but ran into a wall of air when shifted into fifth. The climb to top speed (141 mph) required an additional 2.5 miles of pavement, at an acceleration rate that was leisurely at best. Terminal velocity occurred at 4000 rpm in the overdrive fifth gear; not surprisingly, that's the torque peak of the motor. (The Mustang LX we previously tested ran out of steam at 135 mph.) More power and better gearing pushed the Z28 to a much higher top speed, and did so a full mile sooner than what the Cobra required. The Chevy's lower 0.80:1 fifth gear cogs (versus the Ford's 0.68:1) returned excellent acceleration above 120 mph, and put the speedo on the peg (154 mph) just as the tach needle stretched into the yellow zone. In other words, a perfectly optimized powertrain. Shifting into super-overdrive (0.62:1) sixth gear dropped the top speed to 150 mph.

Braking performance from the Cobra's new four-wheel discs and 17-inch rubber was disappointing. Hampered by the lack of an anti-lock system. it was difficult to stop quickly without dragging a front tire. The Cobra's stopping distance of 144 feet from 60 mph is considered only fair by '93 standards. (And only a foot shorter than the last disk/drum Mustang we tested.) Though equipped with smaller 16-inch tires, the ABS-fortified Z28 gripped the earth like it had hit a patch of epoxy: 60-0 mph in 112 feet and arrow straight. Only a handful of production cars on the planet can beat it.

Juggling the Mustang's suspension components for use on the Cobra (smaller front anti-roll bar, more compliant rear springs, softer shock valving all-around) provides better tire contact on rough surfaces and improved ride quality. Body roll is expectedly a bit more pronounced than before, and the car's speed through the 600-foot slalom of 64.8 mph is in fact slower than the '92 Mustang's 65.2 mph. Perhaps held back somewhat by its smaller tires, the Z28 powered through the slalom cones just a tick faster than the Cobra: 65.0 mph. The Camaro uses many of the same basic chassis components as did the old models, but eschews the former MacPherson-front setup in favor of upper-and-lower control arms. Steering response also has been improved via a change to a rack-and-pinion box.

Our regular slalom and skidpad venue was off limits during the course of this comparo. Unfortunately, our alternate location proved less grippy than promised, and led to only moderate performances of 0.86 g (Cobra) and 0.87 g (Z28), and lower slalom speeds than anticipated. However, the fact that the two cars are relatively close in handling numbers is testimony to the improvements garnered by the Cobra's new tires and revised suspension.

So, in the final analysis, which car is best? The Z28 wins in acceleration, top speed, braking, and handling. The Cobra scores highest in passenger comfort and utility, and has improved its grip with the new 17-inch tires. Both return excellent fuel economy numbers for performance machines. With a base price of $17,195 and an as-tested tally of $19,812, a loaded Z28 about equals what it'll cost to get into a base Mustang Cobra ($19,550). Keep in mind, though, the Cobra includes air conditioning and power equipment as standard. Benefits for Camaro buyers include dual airbags, the six-speed, standard ABS, and the fabulous LTI engine.

No envelope needed -- we have our winner. The Camaro Z28 is lord and master of the '93 pony-car arena.